New Olley display opens at gallery

THE new exhibition at the Margaret Olley Art Centre will be a gallery highlight for 2016, according to Tweed Regional Gallery director Susi Muddiman.

The Mystery of Things: Margaret Olley and David Strachan delves into the connection between Olley and Strachan as friends and fellow artists.

Ms Muddiman said it was an “honour” to host the exhibition, which is on show now.

Curator Ingrid Hedgcock said the exhibition features works on loan from public and private collections around Australia.

“Margaret Olley and David Strachan met in Sydney in the 1940s, travelled together in Europe in the 1950s and lived near each other in Sydney in the 1960s,” Ms Hedgcock said.

“Following Strachan’s untimely death in a car accident in 1970, Olley used his Paddington Street home in Sydney as her studio. Here she completed a compelling series of still life and interior paintings.”

The exhibition will be complemented by an illustrated catalogue with essay contributions from Lou Klepac OAM and Barry Pearce, made possible by the Gordon Darling Foundation, the Tweed Regional Gallery Foundation and the friends of Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre Inc. The Mystery of Things will be on show until Sunday, August 7.